How could Labour emerge unscathed from a second referendum? Campaign for both Leave and Remain

Many Remainers accused the Labour leader of lacklustre campaigning the first time around. While letting his MPs campaign for whichever position they like, this time Corbyn should stand above the fray and refuse to participate at all

Since 2017, the Labour leadership has stubbornly committed to honouring the referendum result with the least-damaging Brexit deal possible. Until recently, this was rewarded with consistent poll leads: remarkably so given terrain that could not be more hostile for a party whose constituencies include Doncaster North (72 per cent Leave) and Bristol West (80 per cent Remain).

With the hardening of Brexit positions around Remain/Leave in May’s European elections, however, the leadership has signalled a Remain-ward drift. Meeting the head of the civil service yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn is reported to have warned him to prepare for a snap election, a Labour government and a second referendum.

Whatever one thinks of the EU, this is not a strategy without risk. Despite promises from commentators that Labour would immediately attract the backing of all Remainers if they prioritised a second referendum, even Remain figureheads like Gina Miller and the Lib Dem leadership candidates have intimated that they might prefer Brexit to a Corbyn government. Internally, opposition to a second referendum spans Labour’s left and right factions: from Ian Lavery and Laura Smith, to Caroline Flint and Steven Kinnock, to John Mann.

And what if Remain loses? Campaigners have done little to convince Leavers that a second referendum is a necessary democratic exercise, rather than an establishment stitch-up to revert to Remain. The result has been a hardening of support for no deal among defensive Leavers.

As interim leader, Harriet Harman ruled out Labour campaigning with David Cameron in the 2016 referendum. It is hard to see how lining up with the current blue-and-gold-painted crop of Remainers is any wiser. Corbyn has managed to ride out this period of right-wing populism by being Labour’s most anti-establishment leader ever. Would that survive another Labour Remain campaign? Let alone another unsuccessful one?

Another option exists. In 1974, Harold Wilson brought Labour back to government with a tiny majority, promising a referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the European Economic Community. As now, the party was split. Labour left members of the Shadow Cabinet worried that European rules would limit their ambitions for a left-wing industrial strategy, just as “Lexiteers” do today.

Wilson’s solution was to let ministers such as Tony Benn, Michael Foot, and Barbara Castle lead the campaign to leave, provided they did not publicly debate pro-EEC ministers, sit on platforms with other parties, or criticise the leadership’s EEC policy in parliament. Last month, Corbyn made reference to this episode in a shadow cabinet meeting, to little comment. Yet it could hold the key to resolving the second referendum trap.

Conceding to hold a second referendum but allowing Labour figures to lead both campaigns would hand Remainers what they want – a chance to roll back Brexit – while continuing to give voice to its Leave constituencies. It would retain the core virtue of Labour’s current policy: its refusal of the false claims of both hardcore Leavers and Remainers, that they and only they can represent the interests of the people. And it would allow all factions to coalesce around two clear and legitimate left-wing positions: “Remain and Reform”, seeking democratic reform of the EU from within, and “Lexit”, respecting the 2016 vote and prioritising Labour’s plans for a high-investment economy unimpeded by EU policies on state aid.

While it is true that welcoming two Labour campaigns could be framed as incoherent, everybody knows the party (like the Tories) is divided on the issue. Surely it’s better to have the two positions out in the open?

And what of prime minister Corbyn’s own role? Silly conspiracy fantasies about his preference for hard Brexit aside, Corbyn regards the EU as a second order issue. The divide he seeks to expose and address is between the exploited and exploiter, the many and the few – not Leavers and Remainers.

Unlike Wilson (or Cameron), Corbyn would presumably not be campaigning on a deal of his own. So why shouldn’t he stay out of it? The party should allow eloquent and passionate voices on either side to make their cases, demonstrating Labour is willing to make all its constituents heard, while Corbyn himself provides what the country actually needs: leadership willing to remind us that there’s more to life than Brexit.